Re: assessing a lone-writer gig

["Mike Starr" <mikestarr-techwr-l -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

Consider that the documents you inherit might be awful from the perspective 
of a professional technical writer but that those not aware of documentation 
standards might consider them to be not just acceptable but perfectly 
wonderful. Because of that, they might not attach any value to the concept 
of cleaning them up and would consider dedicating time and effort to 
cleaning them up to be a waste of your time.

Inherited documents may be poorly written, poorly structured, inconsistently 
formatted, use spaces and blank paragraphs for alignment and may not use 
paragraph styles at all but rather format overrides for everything. However, 
they will have enabled a checkmark to be placed in the "Documentation" 
column. Coming in cold and erasing all of those checkmarks for reasons that 
may not be considered valid by your management team won't win you any 
brownie points.

Mike
--
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
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Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax:(262) 697-6334
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin McGowan" <thatguy_80 -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: <sydney -dot- compson -at- gmail -dot- com>; <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 9:04 AM
Subject: RE: assessing a lone-writer gig

> If you haven't already, ask about the tools they are using...and who's 
> been
> using them. When I got to my startup, I found that everyone had been
> "pitching in" with their Word files...and they were an absolute mess. I
> spent the first month just cleaning it up.
>
> I agree with the others who say that connecting with management is key. If
> you get a good feeling from your potential bosses...you will be ok should
> you take the job.
>
> Kevin
>
>
>>From: "Sydney Compson" <sydney -dot- compson -at- gmail -dot- com>
>>To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>>Subject: assessing a lone-writer gig
>>Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 23:00:56 -0400
>>
>>hi there,
>>
>>I am getting ready to interview for a lone-writer gig at a 30-person
>>startup, and I am wondering if anyone has tips on questions to ask -- or 
>>if
>>you have tips on determining whether it's going to be too much of a
>>sweatshop. 

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